"Fyffes has delivered another important step up in earnings in 2015, its seventh consecutive year of growth", commented the company's chairman David McCann.
Fyffes said its total revenues - including its joint ventures - rose to €1.222 billion from €1.909 billion, while its adjusted pre-tax profits rose to €44.6m. The company said its EBITDA rose by 16.4% to €56.1m from €48.2m in 2014. He said the group's initial target EBITA for 2016 is in the range €42m-€48m.
The Group is focused on continuing to grow its business and is actively pursuing a number of attractive acquisition opportunities.
"Fyffes is pursuing necessary increases in selling prices in all markets in response to the continuing strength of the US dollar against the euro and sterling." continued McCann.
Fyffes said it saw a strong result in its banana category, with a mid-teens percentage increase in operating profits. This was despite a "significant" currency headwind, with the US dollar strengthening by 16% and 17% against the euro and sterling respectively.
Its pineapple operations also saw similar exchange headwinds due to the strength of the US dollar. Fyffes said it secured selling price increases in most markets, helped by supply constraints as a result of poor weather in Costa Rica, its key production region.
The company also said it saw a "broadly satisfactory" result in its US melon business, although profits were down from the very strong result seen the previous year.
Adverse weather conditions in the first half of the year increased costs and resulted in some quality issues in certain varieties which had a modest impact on average selling prices. But the group bought some additional melon assets in Guatemala towards the end of the year which it said contributed to a mid-single digit increase in volumes.
